NEWARK, N.J.-- Uncharacteristic fielding miscues by fifth-seeded North Dakota helped third-seed Houston Baptist to an 8-4 win in the Great West Conference Tournament semifinals Thursday evening at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. HBU now advances to the championship Saturday while UND awaits the winner of Friday's early game between Chicago State and Northern Colorado to determine who will be the Huskies' opponent.

"We didn't handle the ball well today and didn't take care of it," said UND head coach Jeff Dodson. "We didn't play well mentally today and you can't do that against a good club. We'll have to get ready for tomorrow which will be a gut-it-out day. Whoever is the toughest team will survive."

Jeff Campbell took the loss, throwing eight innings, striking out five while allowing six earned runs, but two more unearned runs came home part of five UND errors. Campbell also doubled twice, drove in a pair and scored another for North Dakota.

HBU (33-24-1) got on the board first after loading the bases in the first inning but only securing a single run. North Dakota quickly answered with three in the bottom of that frame, the first two on a double ripped down the left-field line by Campbell.

The Huskies tied the score at 3-all in their half of the second and the score remained there until the sixth frame. In that inning, a leadoff error cost UND a run when Samm Wiggins later came around to score for a 4-3 Huskies edge. UND countered in the bottom of the inning when Campbell's second double nearly missed clearing the fence in left and he would later come around on Matt Wehrli's sacrifice fly. It would be the last time UND could manage much offense, however.

In the eighth, HBU got three insurance runs in the eighth, two on a Jordan Foust homer to left and the Huskies led by four with an inning-and-a-half remaining. HBU's Josh Martinez struck out five over his two innings of relief, ushering the Huskies into the championship game on Saturday. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth by striking out the side with a single, a walk and an error mixed in.

UND generated eight hits Thursday, two each from Campbell and Patrick Riewer.

UND (25-21-1) will play Friday in a loser-out game, the second game of the day at Riverfront Stadium. It will play the winner of Chicago State vs. Northern Colorado in a 12:30 p.m. Central scheduled first pitch.

Notes: Tyler Follis extended his reached-base streak to a season-high 21 games ... Taylor Petersen drew a walk to tie the UND single season record for bases on balls (38, set last season by Kris Kwak) ... Chicago State, seeded eight in the eight-team field, defeated Utah Valley Wednesday and second-seed Texas-Pan American Thursday to advance to Friday ... The game was delayed more than two hours due to heavy rain prior to its start ... Game times Friday have been moved up due to more impending showers scheduled for the Newark area.